New York Rangers: Why winning is counterintuitive this year

The New York Rangers have rattled off three consecutive wins against decent opponents. While winning is relieving in the short term, it may come to the detriment of the future.

Now, before everyone goes and grabs their torches and pitchforks, I’m not upset that the New York Rangers have won three games in a row. For a group that was pushing as hard as it could, it was deflating to lose so many games in tight and close situations. For young players to be surrounded with frustrating experiences is damaging to their development.

But, we go back to the matter at hand, the 2018-2019 Rangers were designed to be a failure. The entire point of unloading players at last year’s deadline in favor of future assets was to bottom out in a rebuilding year and give young guys lots of ice time. While the coaching staff has started to develop a culture and mindset within the team, it’s coming at a cost to the future.

Even if New York were to inexplicably be in the playoff race come February, it’d be foolish to not unload more players for draft picks and prospects. That’s the way rebuilding teams have to operate, with an eye on the future.

The point being, there’s nothing to be gained from making the playoffs as a wildcard and getting slaughtered in the first round by an elite team or picking in the teens of the entry draft. There’s a reason that the Rangers got caught in that soggy middle of the league for so many years. A lack of high-end talent that can typically only be acquired in the first five picks of the draft.

Now, of course, these are professional athletes that are not just going to lose on purpose because it would make sense to. In fact, the team kept emphasizing the point that they were going to be better than people thought. That may have taken a few weeks to come true, but the team found ways to win in tough games.

By all accounts, getting outshot 40-25 shouldn’t result in a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. However, the Rangers just found a way to win, unlike previous games. Instead of impending doom in the third period, New York stood its ground and survived a late push through hard-nosed play.

As nice as it is to pick up three wins in early November, there are bigger forces at play to consider. If New York’s front office wants to be on schedule to compete within a year or two, it’ll need another high-end prospect from the top ten if not the top five of the draft to do so.

That’s where elite teams are built, years of high-end draft picks that actually hit. The Rangers have just two who have yet to hit: Lias Andersson, Vitali Kravstov. At ages 19 and 18 respectively, there is still plenty of time to develop into building blocks. However, the team will need more than just these two to morph into a contender again.

It really is just a matter of being patient and doing things the right way. It’s a matter of the team’s draft picks developing into successful pros. Unfortunately, not all of them will be good at the NHL level. That’s why maximizing the value of picks is so important, the better the pick the more likely the player will be a success.